Conferences

The Pension Research Council sponsors research conferences on topics of timely interest to members. Topics span the range of private and public retirement programs around the world. Themes are suggested by the Advisory Board, and members have the opportunity to explore the social, economic, legal, actuarial, and financial implications of research developments for retirement security.

The May 2-3, 2024, symposium at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania explores and evaluates lessons from behavioral finance and economics regarding retirement saving, investment, decumulation, and institutional frameworks conducive to retirement security. One discussion focuses on the factors helping and hindering retirement saving behavior, including noncognitive factors as well as mortality beliefs. Then we turn to new lessons from retirement savers’ investment patterns, including gender differences, financial literacy, and retirement plan design. Next we explore consumption and spending patterns in retirement, along with cognitive decline and healthcare costs. The overview touches on how plan sponsors and policymakers can apply insights from behavioral finance to retirement policy. Keynote speakers Peter Fisher, BlackRock, and Annamaria Lusardi, Stanford, will offer their learnings about trust and retirement, as well as financial wellbeing in later life. The conference is by invitation only.

The 2023 Pension Research Council Symposium on Diversity, Inclusion, and Inequality: Implications for Retirement Income Security and Policy explored the determinants and dynamics of inequality in retirement income outcomes with an emphasis on inequality by race and ethnicity. Researchers examined the role of housing wealth, pensions, and Social Security in reducing inequality. In addition, experts evaluated inequality-mitigating effects of old-age public and private retirement saving programs policies. Although there has been a great deal of public emphasis on top 1% and 0.1% of wealth inequality, the conference aimed to consider inequality for more representative people, excluding the highest wealth shares. Our March 30-31, 2023 Wharton conference was by invitation only.

Growing awareness of real-world shocks including market downturns, health surprises, and labor market readjustments is calling into question the ability of global retirement systems to remain healthy and sustain future retirees. The 2022 PRC Symposium on Real-World Shocks and Retirement System Resiliency explored how the changing financial and labor markets, and social as well as private insurance programs, will drive the need for new policy to meet these challenges. The event was of interest to asset managers, researchers, management/advisory firms, financial advisors, and policymakers. Keynoters included a discussion of how economic and financial phenomena are changing saving, investments, wealth, and inequality, as well as pension resiliency around the world. Our April 28-29, 2022 Wharton conference was by invitation only.

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Pension Research Council
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
3620 Locust Walk, 3302 Steinberg Hall–Dietrich Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302
Tel: 215.898.7620 | Fax: 215.573.3418 | prc@wharton.upenn.edu
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